It's a Day...

A day of love...

Tricky part is that biblical love is different.

It's not warm and fuzzy and affirming.

It's not automatic or easy.

It's not limited to your closest peeps.

Erdman's Bible Dictionary describes it best:

"An internal quality, expressed externally in concrete actions for the welfare of the other."

I read stories of some of the Christmas miracles and I think, yep. That's who we are meant to be. Soldiers lay down their weapons and share a meal. People reach out to others. Our frantic work to sell and buy comes almost to a halt. (A great wailing was heard in the Stroudsburg area this year when it was discovered that Starbucks would not be open...yep, that was what that sound was.)

A great breath is taken.

There's a beautiful line from a carol called "Star Child."

This year, this year, let the day arrive, when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive."

Love is born...expressed in concrete actions for the welfare of the other.

Merry Christmas!

Candlelight and Commitment...

Joseph was committed, or should have been.

This girl-to-be-wife was pregnant. He planned to put her aside quietly, shield her from public disgrace.

Angels appeared in dreams. God's plans were spoken. Joseph heard a name and a plan which means "God with us."

Joseph committed. The world moved past Joseph. We only hear about him at this time of the year. Mary, we see her along the way. Joseph plays his bit part and pretty much disappears...only a couple of times as "parent" do we glimpse the furrowed brow and the responsibility of fatherhood.

Joseph heard a name and a plan...God with us.

Our commitment may be much the same. We may be named once or twice, referred to in passing, but God's plan may play out around us while we think we are not doing much.

I'm sure God could have made things work if Joseph had dismissed the dream as Ebenezer Scrooge tried to dismiss Marley. But commitment carried it forward.

The Isaiah text sings, "Arise, shine; for your light has come...Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn." (60:1,3)

Light those candles tonight in commitment to playing your part.
God's got the rest...

Begets...

What do you say about the long line of romantic nights that become Matthew's begats?

Having my own children arrive yesterday, one with a six-month old, I think what there is to say is...Now the work begins.

Begats belie the hard work of raising the next generation, of sleepless nights and bone-weary days. There's joy, no doubt. It's fun to look back on your ancestors and see where you came from, to whom you are connected.

But we are connected by ceaseless toil. Our parents couldn't just have taken a week of childlessness, assuring us they'd pick up again on the flip side. Even a week of vacation without kids required work to arrange.Simply unloading the car for a few days at Christmas took the dad 45 minutes. The house looks like someone sneezed baby.

But the joy and the work and the joy begat the new and the ongoing and the memorable and the next.

The promise is what you say about the begats...the promise is coming to pass.

Matthew 1:1-17

 An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4 and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

What then?

"What then will the child become?" the neighbors wonder after the birth and naming of John.

Oh, a prophet in the wilderness who eats bugs and honey and preaches repentance.

O that.

Well.

I often dream of the rising up that could happen. 55% of the American people are against the tax plan. Rise up.

41 Americans live in poverty. 9 million of those get not one cent of cash income.
Rise up.

Health care for children whose parents fall in between poor enough and not rich enough.
Rise up.

Standards of moral and ethical behavior for our elected officials, including not spending tax payer money to settle lawsuits against them.
Rise up.

I don't think we have to eat bugs to be effective. I just think we must rise up.

What, then, will we become?

Luke 1:57-66

57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. 60 But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” 61 They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” 62 Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. 63 He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. 66 All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

Mary's Real Work...

The song in Luke is the Magnificat...parallels the song of Hannah in 1 Samuel. It is the preaching text for the third Sunday in Advent (last Sunday).

I remembered my raising. There were two Marys. One, Catholic like my best friend, was holy and worthy of worship and adoration. My protestant Mary was submissive and obedient and agreed to have the baby Jesus--the man who would do the real work.

But I hear her song in a new way as an adult. Kathleen Norris says Mary "found her voice" when she said "yes" to God's work...and she spent her life following that path. Scholar Elizabeth Johnson reminds us that Mary's experience fulfills the five biblical pointers that identify a prophet.

She's not just a virgin who had a baby or a submissive woman. She's a magnificent prophet who spoke God's truth and who raised a son who changed the world. She proclaimed God's no to oppression in this song and followed Jesus all the way to the cross to enact that truth.

(Course, it could be argued, she had time because there was no Christmas to prepare for and decorate for and preach for and wrap gifts for and send cards for--not that I've managed any of that, except gifts--unwrapped).

But I hope the proclamation of and work toward justice is my everyday call growing from Mary's work...not just a Christmas celebration of a new baby. Most know the real work of having a baby is not the labor, but what follows.

Same is true of Christmas. This may be the labor...but the real work of Christmas is yet to come.

She Persisted...

Women have certainly persisted since the beginning of time.

The song from 1 Samuel reflects the persistence of Hannah, a barren woman taunted by the other wives, who prayed so intensely in the temple for a child that the priest accused her of being drunk. She persisted.

She became pregnant and gave birth to Samuel who would become God's voice to King David.

The question for Advent may be "can we persist?" A part of that question for this writer is what our churches would have looked like if all the people who left because they were dissatisfied with rules over service, hate over love, conflict over community, etc., if all those people had stayed and changed God's church.

Anyone who has been given credit for changing the world has persisted. We persist in this recitation of judgment and hope, of ultimate restoration.

May it change us and may we change the world.

Persist!


1 Samuel 2:1b-10

“My heart exults in the Lord;
    my strength is exalted in my God.[a]
My mouth derides my enemies,
    because I rejoice in my[b] victory.

2 “There is no Holy One like the Lord,
    no one besides you;
    there is no Rock like our God.
3 Talk no more so very proudly,
    let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
    and by him actions are weighed.
4 The bows of the mighty are broken,
    but the feeble gird on strength.
5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
    but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren has borne seven,
    but she who has many children is forlorn.
6 The Lord kills and brings to life;
    he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
    he brings low, he also exalts.
8 He raises up the poor from the dust;
    he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
    and inherit a seat of honor.[c]
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
    and on them he has set the world.

9 “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
    but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness;
    for not by might does one prevail.
10 The Lord! His adversaries shall be shattered;
    the Most High[d] will thunder in heaven.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
    he will give strength to his king,
    and exalt the power of his anointed.”

Hope in Hindsight...

Zephaniah proclaims a word of hope. This trouble will come to an end. The Lord will rejoice over you with gladness, renew you in God's love. God will save the lame, gather the outcast, change their shame into praise and renown.

At that time, I will bring you home.

Walking through judgment into hope.

Experts tell us hope comes from hindsight. We have to have experienced something good in the past to understand something good can happen in the future. People who have no break, nothing good they can hang on to, no experience of succeeding, cannot experience hope.

Mary sings of God's mighty works in her song of praise...hindsight that brings hope.

Perhaps on this day, we look backward to see where God has been at work.

Then we look forward to see where we might give someone else a break, so they have hope in hindsight as well.